I would not worry about the tires to much. Flat spots were a lot more common in older tires. If your concerned push the car forward and backwards once every other week.
Is the car numbers matching? If yes, I would fix your motor. If no, I would try to find a running motor and just drop it in to keep the car on the road. Then work on a rebuild of your present motor. Pulling the motor is not as complicated as it looks or sounds. But, I would pull the motor and transmission at the same time. I just swapped out my turbo 400 and it was much more difficult doing it by its self.
Any members live by you that could give you a hand for a Saturday?
That sounds like it sucks.
I would agree to pull the motor and trans together. If you son is willing to help you should be able to pull it out in 4-5 hours in most cases. Use a pencil to mark the hood hinges.
Maybe your new friend can let you barrow a cherry picker?
Is the motor all stock? What motor what heads? Was the motor pinging at all before this happened? In any event you are going to need to figure out what went wrong first and then determine the road to repair.
I try and look at these unfortunate events as opportunities to improve upon things, however it doesn't sounds like funds to do so are available for that? If the motor is stock I would look at forged rods/piston, 60lbs oil pump, harden shaft, bearings and possibly a new cam. This is the total rebuild scenario.
Best case I could see is turn the crank and throw in new bearing and oil pump. However I would think you would want to disassemble the whole motor to get all the passages clean.
could also look for a spare 350 Pontiac motor to throw in for the rest of the summer. I see them all the time on craigs list.
